Asda, the British unit of the US retail giant Walmart, is to begin processing its online payments in Ireland to save money.

Asda, whose slogan is 'Saving You Money Everyday', confirmed it's planning to process all its online credit card payments via a new Irish subsidiary, but insisted it won't have a physical presence here.

The retailer - the UK's second-largest after Tesco - wouldn't reveal how much it will save by shifting the processing activity to Ireland, or if a third-party will be handling the transactions.

Earlier this year, Asda said that it planned to increase its online turnover to £3bn (€3.7bn) over the next five years from just over £1bn currently.